Last night

I'm sorry to disappoint anyone anticipating a lascivious posting, but last night, in my quest to become a more accomplished life-long learner, I watched public television (it's sad, I know).

I don't normally watch much TV (except House MD and Pushing Daisies - @*&$* writer's strike, grumble grumble) but The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow and The Lobotomist both caught my attention...the latter also managed to trigger my gag reflex.

I grew up on a farm in northeast Iowa; my dad grew corn and beans like all the other farmers in the neighborhood, and also had beef cattle. Not one of the disturbingly huge factory farms, but one of the now-almost-extinct small operations that he was able to manage on his own. Before leaving for college, I periodically helped out with the livestock, and often listened to the cows bellowing while they were inoculated, de-horned, or castrated (oh, the memories). It was very interesting to learn that some of the the distress they were feeling was caused by anxiety rather than pain, which according to Dr Temple Grandin, the subject of TWWTLAC, can be alleviated with some very simple changes.

As for The Lobotomist...ugh. The title says it all; check out the 2005 biography of the same name by Jack El-Hai if you want to learn more, while I try to purge the details from my memory.